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Kim Morgan on DVD, 'Dangerous,' Gram's Nudie Suit and Rollergirl

This week's DVD releases aren't filling me with the thrill of last week. That brought Bogart and Bacall's signature collection complete with To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Key Largo and one of my favorites, Dark Passage. The week prior brought the Warner Brothers Tough Guys Box set filled with the James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson heavy Bullets or Ballots, City for Conquest, Each Dawn I Die, "G" Men, San Quentin and A Slight Case of Murder. And then there was the Film Noir Classic Collection 3 that included Border Incident, the insane (but great) His Kind of Woman, the experimental Lady in the Lake, The Racket and the masterful On Dangerous Ground.

1.On Dangerous GroundDo they make actors like Robert Ryan anymore. Do they (women?) make men like Robert Ryan anymore? No. They do not. Not that the Robert Ryan in Nicholas Ray's magnificent noir On Dangerous Ground (1952) is the ideal (OK, well maybe he is). A time-bomb of psychotic rage (something Ryan perfected), Ryan's New York cop is so off-the-deep end, he's beginning to freak out his fellow fuzz. Like Travis Bickle, Ryan's a loner who can't stomach the dirt and sleaze he contends with on his nightly drives through the city. After he beats the piss out of a crook (he ruptures the guy's bladder), he's assigned to hunt a killer in the more rural, snowy upstate, where he meets the blind Ida Lupino, sister of the chief suspect. Topped by Ryan's rage (which twists into a kind of impotent choler), the film excells from a powerful Bernard Hermann score and exciting, modern touches by the poetic Ray. A hand held pursuit is especially resonant. Pure expressionistic misery. And yet, oddly romantic.

2. Gram Parsons' Nudie SuitIf you recall, I had one of those Gram Parsons fan moments while visiting his famed death room at the Joshua Tree Inn. Like every dork attempting to get a real taste of Gram in any way possible, I swore I saw his ghost. But it could have been the xanax (I also had a panic attack in the desert). Anyway, let's just pause and apprecitate Parsons' drug embroidered Nudie Suit. And check out more of his suit with this Flying Burrito Brothers look at Sin City.

3. Anna Karina singing Serge Gainsbourg's "Rollergirl" Years back, when I had a band (for about one week and two seconds), the only song I wanted to sing was Serge Gainsbourg's "Rollergirl." Our band got it down (and in French) and then promptly never performed/practiced anything after that. But that's not the only reason I've been long obsessed with this growly, sexy song, I always wanted to actually see Anna Karina sing the thing. Knowing Gainsbourg crafted The Anna Show, I searched for any pirated copy I could find to no avail. But thanks to the wonders of You Tube, I found it. Oh Anna. Dig her socks. And glasses. And...dear god she was hot.

Robert Ryan belongs to that long-gone age of actors (along with Steve McQueen and Robert Mitchum) who were at their best when they weren't speaking, and could easily convey a sense of dread or malice with their smile, which on the surface initially seems genuine. I just caught "Bad Day at Black Rock" and loved how Ryan's character got so much joy out of his wicked actions.

The review of On Dangerous Ground was right on target.
Since authoring my book, Robert Ryan: A Biography And Critical Filmography, I have recently had time to search the web for reviews of his movies.
Any comments on his other gems, such as Caught, The Woman On The Beach, and so on?
These and many others are on DVD from Amazon.Fr.
I would like to hear others comment on Ryan the man. They don't make actors like him anymore, that's so true. His range as an actor was amazing, and he was able to do any role, unlike many others who can only do one role well.
His speaking voice and diction were excellent. I have all of his spoken works I think, including The Red Badge Of Courage on audio tape, O'Henry's "The Last Leaf" and "The Gift Of The Maji," on long play records, and several other records on which he narrated, which are virtually impossible to acquire now. I even have a copy of the original master track from On Dangerous Ground.